5 foreign suicide bombers killed in Pakistan's Quetta city

The five militants, who were believed to be Chechens or Uzbeks, were travelling in a vehicle that was initially stopped at a police check post near the airport.

They refused to allow policemen to check the vehicle and fled the spot following which security forces chased the car and stopped it at another post manned by the paramilitary Frontier Corps in the suburb of Kharotabad.

The militants then opened fire. The security forces retaliated and gunned them down.
There were no casualties among the police and paramilitary forces, Quetta police chief Daud Ahmed Junejo told the media.

The vehicle was coming from the border town of Chaman to Quetta, other officials said.
Officials said all militants were wearing suicide vests and had grenades and bombs strapped to their bodies.

"We are investigating but so far it appears from documents found on them all five belonged to Chechnya," he said.

"We are trying to find what their intentions and target were but apparently they were out to commit a terrorist attack in the city," he said.

A Frontier Corps officer told media at the site of the gun battle that the five attackers were aged between 20 and 25 years and seemed to be Uzbeks or Chechens from their appearance.

An investigation was ordered into the incident.The bomb disposal squad was called in to defuse the suicide vests and other explosives.

The Pakistani Taliban, which is close to al Qaeda, has warned it will avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden in a US raid on May 2.

Two Taliban suicide bombers killed over 90 people in an attack on a paramilitary training academy in the northwestern town of Charsadda last week.